Albertan

I think the best filter for the price is probably the FX5. But I am not convinced that it isn't too much flow for a 60 gallon tank. I know I wouldn't put it on my 58 gallon GeoSystem tank. I would run the XP3 (I have two in addition to other filtration on my 150) or a Fluval 404. The 404 might allow you to keep your current hoses and such in place...none of the others will. I am running a Fluval 404 and two AC50s on my 58 currently and its always worked well for me. Good luck.

Funny thing that just crossed my mind. She laid those eggs in the corner closest to the 21 housing my Red Devil. Perhaps she was trying to spawn with it? They are certainly aware of each others presence.

Yeah, that's my plan when I do introduce the male. I planned on using an eggcrate with an opening just big enough for the smaller male. I would like to see a little more growth from the male before I introduce him though. About a month ago I had a female convict in with this female. That convict is roughly the size of the males at the moment. The female dovii caught her by the tail and chewed her up badly. I wasn't home but I can just invision the dovii lurking under her log with the convict hanging out of her mouth. I certainly don't want that to happen again.

She looks like that 24/7. I thought she was a male until she dropped eggs the first time. It's good to hear this is at least somewhat normal. I guess I'll just have to keep the males with fat bellies and grow them out as fast as I can. The males are really nice so I am leary of introducing them too soon and losing one. THis fish is a b%^&$ to her tankmates. Thanks again.

I am going to be going to Aquarium Illusions/Concept Aquariums on Monday in Edmonton to pick up some plumbing to connect the sump on my 230. If you haven't had any luck locating the hinges let me know and I'll see if I can grab some for you. Cheers.

I posted this on MFK earlier today and got no help at all there. I swear unless they have the opportunity to put their 2 cents in on the ID of a fish 98% of the members over there are clueless. /rantoff Anyways, I never posted here because I was waiting to get home and get some pictures. I moved my female dovii from the 120 into the 55 alone when I picked up my FishFarm order and put the four males into the 120 to grow out. The female had pretty much that entire tank to herself before that. She's always been shy pretty much from day one. Life in the 55 was no different. I thought she must have been eating when I wasn't around though because I noticed she was looking pretty fat when I was checking her out last night. Well today I came home for lunch to feed the fish and found the back glass covered in eggs! I'm not sure if its "normal" for these fish to drop eggs without a male around or if its a response to stress. She did it once before in the summer after I re-aquascaped her tank and changed some of her tankmates. Poor girl is doing her best to take care of the eggs, fanning them constantly. I can't wait for the males to grow out so she has some company. I'm pretty sure she'd kill them right now. She does look like she's grown in the past month. She must be 7-8" now since she was 7" as I recall when I moved her. If anyone has experienced a similar "false breeding" with their cichlids I would love to hear about it. I haven't come across much on it online. Thanks.

Great pictures Patrick. I'd love to see a full tank shot. Looks like a nice setup.

Brine is good but its so messy I try to stay away from it. I used frozen plankton cubes cut up and 1mm sinking NLS pellets for the motas. Now I am dropping in the odd 3mm MLS sinking pellet but only about half the fish can get them in their mouth. They say to feed as much as the fish can consume in a few minutes. But I like to have my fish with fat bellies 24/7 when I'm trying to get them to grow out. As long as it's a quality diet and the species isn't prone to bloat, I haven't had any problems getting fish to grow yet.

Hey Denis. The motas are tiny as well. The stocking list said 2-3" but I had some that were lucky if they were an inch when I got them. The biggest problem was getting them to eat initially. But I think I have that behind me now and they are starting to color up nicely and grow a bit. I'll post some more pictures later. We may have to arrange some sort of swap between the red tigers and the loiselli in the Summer if they start looking good. I'm not surprised those freddies are coloring up already after the long trip. That group just seems to go with the flow. If you can, try to put them somewhere where they will be able to see your family around regularly. After keeping them in our family room for the past year, I had to move the remaining three out to the 230 in the garage and they are a little depressed with the situation. Fortunately it's a short term arrngement. Quinn's female Jag was a very nice fish and a nice match size-wize for the freddies. I think they'll all be a good match. Glad to hear you made it home safely with the fish. You just missed the bad weather. It's -42 with the wind chill here ATM. :tongue:

Absolutely 110% IMO.

Holy cow is this fish growing. I went back and measured the ornament in the first set of pictures and came to the conclusion that this fish was 3" when I picked it up at Christmas. I just measured it this evening and its at 5" already! My experiment growing it out in the 21g may not last too long. Its temperment hasn't changed. It's still nasty as ever, which I think is in part to keeping it alone. I've seen it race lengthwise across the tank and smack into the glass with a dull thud a couple of times now...and not at anything in particular. Overall the fish seems content though. Just ornery as can be. Should make for an interesting adult. I may need to plan on some more tanks to get into this genus as well. :smokey: It's still got the pointy face of a juvenile, but already its starting to pack on some mass and fill out. Compare that photo to just a week ago. That's all for now. Just playing with the camera.

Nice looking fish and great photos. :thumbs:

One of the males has your name on it if you want one Sue. I will split them apart fairly soon since even in the 120g the dominant male is putting the run on the others. One other male hides next to the FX5 intake behind some plants and defends that little spot as his territory. The other cowers up in the corner behind the FX5 output nozzles. They all still eat fine though. I'd like to grow them out a bit and give my female the chance to choose, but we'll see. At the moment, I'm keeping this dominant male regardless.

Looking forward to more pictures. Don't be afraid..post them all up for us to see. You may also want to check out here for some great advice!

I was going through this thread after feeding the fish tonight and realized that the dovii pictures don't really give a person any idea just how blue the fins are on these fish. Let me try that again... Stupid tinfoil barbs always darting all over the place getting in the way... This is the dominant fish. But I have three males with similar coloration. :thumbs: There's one of the other males above him. The fins look like they belong on another fish! My new desktop as of ten minutes ago. :smokey:

Nice pics Sue. The Escondidos look great. How about a pic of your female dovii? :thumbs:

One additional consideration for carbon. If you believe in the theory that fish release pheromones that can affect their growth in aquaria, whether it be young fish trying to outcompete siblings or adults in response to poor water conditions, then you might also want to consider the fact that carbon is supposed to remove these pheromones. I'm not sure where I stand on this theory. But I do know that while carbon may remove these potentially detrimental hormones if they in fact exist in aquaria, water changes will absolutely, unequivocally remove them also.

You already have fish in your tank that looked just like that at the same age... :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

One other fish that is commonly recommended for smaller tanks along with the grammodes is C. istlanum. I am not familiar witht he fish but I encourage you to look into it. I will warn you up front that while the grammodes are an attractive fish, they are the source of much frustration for those trying to raise them. Good luck.

Nice pike cichlids Nick. I remember seeing them at Quinn's. I am not terribly familiar with those fish so I went and looked them up on MFK when I got home. They are very cool indeed. Any more pictures of the Escondidos Sue? They count for this thread as far as I am concerned. :thumbs:

Parachromis dovii When I saw these guys on the order list at $24.99 each I had to do a double take. I got Quinn to question Ken about them and he said they were some of the nicest dovii he had ever seen at their size. These guys are little scruffs like the motas, but zowie they put my Rapp's dovii badly to shame when they were the same size. I'm pretty sure my male will be the one I have pictured below, but I learned my lesson the last time so I'll just have to wait and see. My apologies for the bubbles in the picture. I had to take the FX5 off this tank for the 230, so the AC110 is working overtime. Well let's dispense with the formalities and get to the money shot right off the bat. Pretty impressive for a 2" fish... My best Rapp's dovii at the same size. I over-exposed this picture by moving the lights to the front of the tank, but it gives an idea of the ridiculously blue finnage on this fish. And an underexposed picture showing the spotting continuing above the lateral line on the fish. This fish has adult markings at 2"!

Parachromis motaguense "Red Tiger" These aren't only my fish. Denis (Tigerfish) and I discussed how we might best be able to get a breeding pair or two from the eight that Ken had available. We decided that I would take all of them (even though Denis paid for his five) and dedicate one of my larger tanks to them. Initially we discussed using the 230g, but they turned out to be so small that I am glad I put them in the 150g. Once I get a pair, I am flying the other six down to Calgary at my cost for Denis to pick up...two fellow hobbyists working together...I love it! Anyways, I am excited about the future prospects of these fish. But given that some are only 1" atm, they aren't much to look at...yet. Home sweet home. This is the tank I raised my freddies to 10" in ten months. Right behind it is a bathroom set up for water changes. :thumbs: The herd waiting to be fed. Notice how they are all facing the same direction? It's so hard to feed these little guys that I have to dump in about three times more food than I want to to get their bellies full. So I have three plecos in with them and huge turnover on the tank creating quite a strong current. Chillin' by one of the plants. They aren't terribly shy, but they don't sit out in the open with all that current either. Pretty bland looking fish at this stage of development. One out for a cruise. I think the female BN pleco's turd is bigger than the mota. :smokey: Every now and then the light catches one just right and you can start to see the earliest signs of the coloration to come.

I know some have posted pictures of the fish they received recently in the FishFarm group order. But not all have, and some have yet to receive theirs from the second replacement order. Lets see what you got! I'll start us off...

That's how I like to do it, except I am usually looking for a pair.

First off I wouldn't go FX5 on that tank...too much water movement even with plenty of hiding spaces. IMO, an XP3 and an AC70 would be the ticket. I am running a Fluval 404 and two AC 50s on my 58 with great success. As for the fish, JDs are a nice fish that I believe will work in a 55. The fish I would be looking at though is a grammodes or salvini. Grammodes are very cool fish that look like mini dovii with red spots. They are a challenge to raise as they seem prone to bloat. But they top out at about a foot and are notoriously slow growers so you might have the opportunity to get an even larger tank before the fish reaches full size.